Mayors want to pass gun laws, but the NRA and legislatures won't let us | Opinion

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Georgia Dowdy, 11, listens to students speakers at Redwood High School in Visalia after marching along Mooney Blvd. to bring awareness to gun violence on Saturday, March 24, 2018. Two groups, March For Our Lives and Cesar Chavez Legacy March, walked together. Dowdy had short hair before but was inspired by Emma Gonzalez, a student and survivor of the Parkland, Florida shooting, to cut her own hair even shorter.(Photo: Ron Holman, )

As mayors, we’re elected to take on big challenges. Infrastructure and public works, water quality and energy efficiency, law enforcement and civil rights, and making our cities competitive in the 21st century economy.

Atop that list should be smart, common-sense local firearms laws that keep guns out of the wrong hands, keep guns out of public spaces, and keep the threat of gun violence and mass shootings at bay.

There’s no doubt about the need for thoughtful new gun ordinances. Mayors across the country are ready to pass them, enhancing public safety in our cities. But we can’t — because our states have banned us from enacting local gun laws.

Tallahassee mayor and Florida governor candidate Andrew Gillum (D) speaks to the crowd at the March for Our Lives Rally on the steps of the Old Florida Capitol on Saturday, March 24.(Photo: Andrew Salinero/FSView)

Forty-three states have some form of gun preemption, a tactic increasingly used by state legislators to prevent cities and counties from making local laws and decisions. States are interfering in local efforts to raise wages, pass paid sick time and non-discrimination ordinances, and adopt fracking and environmental regulations. Lawmakers are using preemption to overturn elections, perpetuate racial and economic inequality and silence local voices.

It’s happening in your state. And it’s happening because lobbyists and special interests know it’s easier to influence a few state lawmakers in 50 state capitols than thousands of local mayors and city councils.

Nearly everywhere gun violence can happen, local leaders are blocked from taking action to help prevent it, And as recently highlighted by the Campaign to Defend Local Solutions, the consequences of defying the state can be grave.

In Pennsylvania, local governments can’t pass gun laws more restrictive than the state’s. In Tennessee, the gun lobby and special interest groups can sue local officials for passing gun ordinances. In Florida, should council members dare pass local gun laws, they can be fined and removed from office by the governor. And in Kentucky, your mayor can be jailed for up to a year just for voting for a local firearm regulation.

That’s the power of America’s gun lobby. In a new national poll released this month by the Local Solutions Support Center, 70 percent of voters said corporate special interests and their lobbyists convince state lawmakers to block local laws to protect their profits. Let us be clear: Our states are choosing the NRA over your lives and safety. And right now, we’re powerless to stop them.

But in the wake of last month’s tragic shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School a new movement has arisen, fueled by an awakened collective conscience that we can — we must — do better on gun violence. The voice of that movement is the voice of America’s young people, demanding that their elected officials do their jobs and keep them safe.

Your local mayors are ready. We can pass thoughtful local firearm restrictions that reduce the threat of gun violence while respecting constitutional rights. We can do what needs to be done on guns if our state legislatures get out of the way. We can do this, if people contact their state lawmakers and demand an end to firearm preemption laws.

We owe it to those who have lost their lives to gun violence and to those whose lives we can save yet from tragedy.

Andrew Gillum is the mayor of Tallahassee. Bill Peduto is the mayor of Pittsburgh, Penn. Ted Wheeler is the mayor of Portland, Ore. They are joined by the following other mayors: Jacob Frey of Minneapolis; Michelle De La Isla of Topeka, Kan.; Buddy Dyer of Orlando.; Sly James of Kansas City, Mo.; Christopher Taylor of Ann Arbor, Mich.; Nan Whaley of Dayton, Ohio; Lyda Krewson of St. Louis, Mo.; and Jorge Elorza of Providence, R.I.